Orlando's Construction-Job Growth Outpaces Other SectorsOrlando Sentinel (FL)March 03--Construction has shown more robust job growth in Metro Orlando during the past year than any other area of employment, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. One of the region's hardest-hit industries during the housing crash and the Great Recession grew at triple the rate of job growth as the overall Orlando economy from December 2013 through December 2014, the bureau's ...

03/03/2015

Report: Miami's Downtown Condo Market to Cool DownMiami Herald (FL)March 03--A new study confirms the latest chatter from real estate watchers: Miami's sizzling downtown condo market is cooling down. Skyrocketing construction costs, overheated land prices and falling foreign currencies have finally caught up with a housing market that boomed after the lean years of the recession. But unlike the last go-around, when highly leveraged projects brought the house ...

03/02/2015

FDOT Considers Widening Florida's Turnpike in Palm Beach CountyPalm Beach Post (FL)March 02--In what officials are calling another sign of a recovering economy, the state Department of Transportation is reviving plans to expand Florida's Turnpike in Palm Beach County with additional lanes from Boca Raton to Palm Beach Gardens. No construction money is available yet, but the DOT wants to start work over the next five years on $46 million in designs for widening the turnpike ...

02/28/2015

50-Year-Old USF Dorms to Make Way for New Student HousingTampa Tribune (FL)Feb. 28--TAMPA -- It was a busy year. President Lyndon B. Johnson declared "War on Poverty." The Beatles hit U.S. shores. The World's Fair opened in New York. Health officials made the formal connection between smoking and lung cancer. And in 1964, on the north side of the University of South Florida campus, a set of dormitories collectively known as Andros I opened to 650 students. College ...

02/27/2015

Georgia Power Reports Share of Vogtle Cost Increases to State RegulatorsAugusta Chronicle (GA)Feb. 27--Georgia Power Co. told state regulators Friday that its share of capital construction costs for the Plant Vogtle expansion has risen $246 million, and asked for approval of completion dates 18 months later than previous schedules. The capital costs are now $5.045 billion, up from $4.8 billion previously reported, the nuclear power plant's primary owner disclosed in its newest ...

02/27/2015

Planet Hollywood Unveils Redesign for Disney SpringsOrlando Sentinel (FL)Feb. 27--Planet Hollywood is transforming its iconic globe at Downtown Disney into what the company is calling a turn-of-the-20th-century observatory. The Orlando-based company unveiled plans Thursday for a redesigned restaurant at the Disney shopping and entertainment complex. The goal is to bring it in line with the Disney Springs design under construction there. The Planet Hollywood project ...

02/26/2015

$10.50 Tolls Fail to Keep Miami's I-95 Express Lanes MovingSouth Florida Sun Sentinel (FL)Feb. 26--Higher tolls aren't keeping drivers out of the I-95 express lanes in Miami-Dade County. And that means it's increasingly slow-going, especially for northbound commuters who thought they were paying a premium for a faster trip out of downtown Miami. The state last year raised the maximum toll on the express lanes to $10.50, with the idea it would discourage some drivers from entering. ...

02/26/2015

SunRail Expansion in Central Florida Pushed Back Six MonthsOrlando Sentinel (FL)Feb. 26--The planned SunRail commuter-train expansion south into Osceola County and north to DeLand in Volusia County will be delayed by at least six months, pushing back the projected start date to the summer of 2017. Difficulties in securing $126 million in federal grants are behind the delay, said Noranne Downs, the state Department of Transportation administrator in charge of SunRail. ...

02/25/2015

All Aboard Florida Officials Rail Against Opposition Group's StudyPalm Beach Post (FL)Feb. 25--All Aboard Florida officials took aim at an economic study paid for by a local group fighting the company's plan to return passenger rail service to the Florida East Coast Railway tracks, saying the 15-page analysis "relies solely on assumptions and speculation." In a one-sentence statement sent Monday to The Palm Beach Post, Lynn Martenstein, All Aboard Florida's Vice President of ...

02/25/2015

Construction to Start on Univ. of South Carolina's $25M Research CenterState (Columbia, SC)Feb. 25--Springtime 2016 is slated to provide downtown Columbia with development bookends: pro baseball on the north end of the city center and a long-awaited opening of a key link in the future of USC's Innovista campus. Shovels no doubt are being shined for the groundbreaking Thursday of the University of South Carolina's $25 million research and office building at the one of the city's ...

02/25/2015

Haiti Welcomes Completion of $45M Marriott Hotel ProjectMiami Herald (FL)Feb. 25--Three years after encouraging one of the Caribbean's largest private employers to go into the hotel business to help bring much-needed jobs and tourism to a destitute Haiti, former U.S. President Bill Clinton on Tuesday welcomed Haiti's first Marriott, calling it one of the best hotels in the country. "I want to thank Marriott for more than the hotel, more than the jobs, more than the ...

02/25/2015

Developers Force Central Fla. Condo Owners Out of HomesOrlando Sentinel (FL)Feb. 25--WINTER SPRINGS -- Shirley Lofgren, 85, is being forced to sell the sun-filled, waterfront condo she and her husband bought nine years ago for less than a third of the $217,000 they paid for it. The sale is allowed under a "condominium termination" law passed by the Legislature in 2007. "Nobody can believe this is legal -- that they can just take your home and they'll give you what ...

02/25/2015

St. Lucie County Mulls Joining in Fight Against All Aboard FloridaTreasure Coast Newspapers (Stuart, FL)Feb. 25--ST. LUCIE COUNTY -- Before setting aside money for a legal fight against All Aboard Florida, St. Lucie County commissioners say they need to see a plan for how the funds would be used. Residents have sent dozens of emails to commissioners, urging them to follow Indian River and Martin counties, which last week allocated money for a court challenge to All Aboard, a private, $2.25 ...

02/24/2015

Execs Confirm Construction of King Kong Attraction at Universal OrlandoOrlando Sentinel (FL)Feb. 24--One of Orlando's worst-kept secrets was confirmed Tuesday, when Comcast Corp. executives said what theme-park watchers have been speculating for months: A new King Kong attraction will open at Universal Orlando. The Kong attraction appears to be currently under construction at Universal's Islands of Adventure, from Toon Lagoon to the Jurassic Park River Adventure. Universal has not ...

02/24/2015

Developers Break Ground on $20M Ice-Skating Complex in Pasco County, Fla.Tampa Tribune (FL)Feb. 24--WESLEY CHAPEL -- With a flick of her silver medal-winning wrists, 2014 U.S. Olympic hockey player Anne Schleper sent a hockey puck flying inches off the ground Tuesday morning at the site of what will someday be the largest ice-sports facility in the Southeast. As the puck slammed into a net, a cheer rose from developers of the $20 million sports facility, as well as officials with ...

02/24/2015

NRC to Probe Damage to Under-Construction Containment Vessel at S.C. Nuke PlantState (Columbia, SC)Feb. 24--COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Nuclear regulators have opened a probe into damage done two weeks ago to the bottom head of the Unit 2 containment vessel under construction at the V.C. Summer nuclear plant in Jenkinsville, federal officials said Monday. Damage to the vessel appears to have been "inadvertent" said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which sent three inspectors to the site 25 miles ...

02/23/2015

St. Pete, Fla., Uses Online Survey to Let Residents Choose Pier DesignTampa Tribune (FL)Feb. 23--ST. PETERSBURG -- The months-long process to choose a replacement for the city's signature downtown Pier has gone public. For the next two weeks, city residents may join in a survey to rank the seven remaining proposals to redesign the Pier and the iconic inverted pyramid that has anchored its far end since 1973. The survey rankings will be used the by the Pier Selection Committee, ...

02/23/2015

NRC to Inspect Construction at VC Summer Nuclear Plant After AccidentAssociated PressCOLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A special inspection is underway after damage to a nuclear reactor under construction in South Carolina, federal regulators said Monday. In a news release, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said its representatives are launching a special inspection this week at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Jenkinsville, about 25 miles northwest of Columbia. Earlier this ...

02/23/2015

Orlando International Unveils Finance Plan for $1.3B OverhaulOrlando Sentinel (FL)Feb. 23--Orlando International Airport has the financing in place for the $1.3 billion expansion that is just getting underway. The work also sets the stage for the eventual construction of a second passenger terminal a mile south of the existing one. The construction, at its peak, should create as many as 300 temporary jobs. There is no projection for permanent employment at the facilities ...

02/22/2015

Pasco County, Fla., Officials Want to Build New Criminal CourthouseTampa Tribune (FL)Feb. 22--LAND O' LAKES -- Pasco commissioners say they plan to move forward with the planned criminal courthouse in Land O' Lakes, but they still need to figure out a way to pay for it. "We promised the judges we would restart this," Chairman Ted Schrader said. "We can't just continue to ignore it." It's been almost two years since the county opened bids for design/construction teams to build ...

02/22/2015

Construction Starts at Columbia, S.C., Baseball StadiumState (Columbia, SC)Feb. 22--COLUMBIA, S.C. -- America's pastime will be the centerpiece of the new Columbia Common development on the site of the former State Hospital campus on Bull Street. A new minor league baseball team for Columbia will be a lot like the ones in the past: A low or high Class A team playing other teams within a bus ride away, according to the new team's owner, Jason Freier of Atlanta-based ...

02/20/2015

Ocala, Fla., Assisted-Living Facility to Start Construction SoonOcala Star-Banner (FL)Feb. 20--An official with an Atlanta company planning an assisted-living facility in Marion County said the company hopes to begin building within weeks. Ellin McCabe, a representative of Medical Development Corp., said Canterfield of Ocala is planned for Southwest State Road 200. "We are probably going to start construction sometime within the next 60 days, hopefully," she said on Friday. ...

02/20/2015

Robins AFB Hospital Getting $29M RenovationMacon Telegraph (GA)Feb. 20--ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE -- The oldest part of the medical clinic at Robins is about to undergo a major renovation. The $29 million project will update a 70,000-square-foot building that opened in 1967 as a hospital. Today, the medical services on base are all done on an outpatient basis. Much of the old hospital is used as administrative offices. Instead of cubicles, people work in what ...

02/20/2015

Duke Energy, Feds Reach $102M Settlement Over Coal-Ash SpillCharlotte Observer (NC)Feb. 20--Federal prosecutors Friday filed criminal charges against Duke Energy for illegal discharges from ash ponds across the state, including near Charlotte and Raleigh and in Rockingham County, where a massive spill a year ago triggered intense scrutiny of the company's environmental management. Duke said it has reached a settlement agreement with the federal government over nine ...

02/20/2015

Developer Asks for Year Delay for Charlotte, N.C., Sports Complex ProjectCharlotte Observer (NC)Feb. 20--The developer of a proposed amateur sports complex adjacent to Bojangles' Coliseum has asked for a year delay in the project, a move that may mean the city's partnership with Florida-based Goodsports Enterprises is over. The company's chief executive, Jerald Good, sent City Manager Ron Carlee a letter Thursday asking that the two sides "curtail ... any future talks or discussions" ...